Fraud is the new burglary as crime rates rise across Yorkshire

Fraud and cyber-crime have replaced burglary and car theft as the '˜volume crimes' of the 21st century, a leading expert has said, after the offences were included in the annual crime statistics for the first time.
Fraud and cyber-crime are the new volume crimes of the 21st century, it was claimed today.Fraud and cyber-crime are the new volume crimes of the 21st century, it was claimed today.
Fraud and cyber-crime are the new volume crimes of the 21st century, it was claimed today.

Official crime figures released yesterday showed that fraud is now the most commonly perpetrated offence, with nearly one in 10 adults falling victim to scams.

The likelihood of being conned is now double the risk of having a car stolen, the data suggest, exposing a shift away from traditional methods used by criminals.

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Britain’s most senior police officer, Scotland Yard chief Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, has said the “warning lights are flashing” over crime, with the inclusion of fraud and cyber-crime meaning that there were nearly 12 million offences in a year.

Yvette CooperYvette Cooper
Yvette Cooper

But stripping out the two categories gives a tally of 6.2 million, which was not a “statistically significant” change compared with the previous year.

This was despite a rise a 22 per cent rise in “violence against the person” crimes in the year to September, an increase said in part to be a result of changes in recording practice.

West Yorkshire Police’s position as the force with the highest rate of recorded crime was cemented by yesterday’s figures, with its rate of 96.6 offences per 1,000 people nearly ten points higher than the Metropolitan Police, the next highest force.

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Chief constable Dee Collins said the apparent rise in crime was due to her force being ahead of others in making changes to the way it records offences.

Yvette CooperYvette Cooper
Yvette Cooper

The amount of recorded crime rose last year for all of Yorkshire’s forces, though North Yorkshire remained the safest county in England despite a five per cent rise. Humberside Police and South Yorkshire Police saw rises of nine per cent and 10 per cent respectively.

Yvette Cooper, a West Yorkshire MP and chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, said: “Today’s crime figures are troubling, with a rise in murder and violent crime, as well as revealing the huge scale of online crime which has grown substantially.

“For a long time the Home Office has talked about crime falling. But these figures show instead that crime is changing radically, with big increases in online crime that the police are not yet properly equipped to address. And the police figures showing a rise in murder and violent crime should be serious cause for concern.”

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Simon Dukes, Chief Executive of fraud prevention service Cifas, said: “Fraud and cybercrime are the volume crimes of the 21st Century, and today’s figures are further evidence of this. These crimes have a devastating effect on individuals and businesses.

“Fighting fraud can feel like an arms race – fraudsters are sophisticated innovators who constantly adapt their methods. “Only with Government, industry and citizens working together will we be able to prevent fraud and reduce the impact of this destructive crime on our society.”

Describing the rise in violent offences, Jeff Farrar, National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for crime and incident recording, said: “Increases in public order, sexual offences, and violence without injury have been major contributing factors in this.

“There appear to be smaller increases in some of the lower volume but higher harm categories of police recorded violence including homicide, up by 22 per cent, much of which is due to the inclusion of the 96 victims from the tragic events at Hillsborough.

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“Knife crime has increased by 11% in line with the recent upward trend.

“The service is determined to address this rise and will continue with proactive operations across the county to target habitual carriers of knives and those shops who are willing to sell to those who are under age.”

Lucy Hastings, director of charity Victim Support, said criminals are finding “new, sophisticated” ways to target people and warned cybercrime and fraud can have a “devastating impact” on victims’ lives.

She added: “It’’s extremely concerning that over 10 million people were affected by crime last year.”

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Policing Minister Brandon Lewis said: “Police reform is working and crimes traditionally measured by the survey have fallen by a third since 2010 to a record low, with over 370,000 fewer violent crimes a year.

“Crime is changing and the way it is measured needs to change too so that we can continue to protect families and communities from the biggest threats.”

He said the Government is taking “world-leading action” to stamp out fraud and cyber crime.